Goal glut at Monaco sets scoring record

Saul Brookfield
Wednesday 05 November 2003 20:00 EST
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Champions' League history was made in an amazing game at the Stade Louis II last night as Monaco thrashed Deportivo la Coruña 8-3. The Group C match set a new competition record for the aggregate number of goals, while, on his 29th birthday, the Croatian striker Dado Prso became only the third player - after Milan's Marco van Basten and Simone Inzaghi of Lazio - to score four goals in a game.

The French side led 5-2 at half-time, Prso having already grabbed a hat-trick, as the Deportivo defence were continually caught square. Five minutes into the second half it was seven, even though the Spaniards had taken off their goalkeeper, Jose Molina, at the break, while the former West Ham midfielder, Edouard Cissé, rounded things off by scoring the eighth in the 67th minute.

To make it a thoroughly wretched night for Deportivo, in the other game in the group PSV Eindhoven closed the gap on them to one point by beating AEK Athens 2-0, Wilfred Bouma and Arjen Robben scoring the goals in the second-half.

The other outstanding result in the competition was Lyon's 2-1 win at Bayern Munich, the Brazilian striker Giovane Elber returning to the club that sold him in the summer to fire the winner after 52 minutes. Bayern, whose next game in Group A is a difficult trip to Celtic, were booed off by a 59,000-capacity crowd at the Olympic Stadium.

In the other game in Arsenal's group, Internazionale's recent indifferent form continued as they could only draw 1-1 with Lokomotiv Moscow at San Siro. Alvaro Recoba had given the home side the lead in the 14th minute against the run of play. However, it was no more than Lokomotiv deserved when Dmitry Loskov's 30-yard shot took a deflection off Marco Materazzi to wrongfoot the goalkeeper, Francesco Toldo, nine minutes after the break.

In Group D, Juventus qualified for the knock-out stages with a hard-earned 0-0 draw away to Real Sociedad. In Athens, Olympiakos beat Galatasaray 3-0, with both sides having a man sent off in the last three minutes.

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